August 06, 2009

Another Messy Divorce At Global Policy Partners

It seems there’s more than one messy divorce going on over at Global Policy Partners.

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that the lobbying and consulting shop had filed suit against Juleanna Glover, the ex-wife of partner Jeffrey Weiss. The suit accused Glover of hacking into her husband’s work e-mail to get an unfair advantage in their 2007 divorce proceeding. Glover also allegedly used the information she found to try and draw her husband’s clients over to her own lobbying firm, the Ashcroft Group, home of former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

As it turns out, Weiss’ business partner, Katherine Friess Yessin, filed a similar suit against her own spouse last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, asking for more than $750,000.

The complaint accuses Friess Yessin’s husband, Tampa, Fla.-based Lawyer Brent Yessin, of breaking into her work e-mail account and reading correspondence between her and her divorce lawyer. The couple separated in May and are currently going through their own divorce proceedings.

“Defendant surveilled Plaintiff’s privileged correspondence with her counsel regarding her strategy in the divorce and what she would accept as a settlement,” the complaint states. “With this privileged information, Defendant has obtained a decisive, unfair advantage in the divorce proceedings.”

The complaint alleges that after Friess Yessin changed her e-mail password in late June, her husband called Global Policy’s IT specialist and demanded access to her account. When the IT specialist refused, Yessin allegedly “threatened” him. Eventually, Yessin was referred to the IT specialist’s legal counsel, who told him he had no legal right to access his wife’s account.

Friess Yessin found out about the alleged snooping a few days later, the complaint states.

The complaint also lists 10 John Does as potential defendants, but does not describe what their role may have been.